


darling, everything's on fire

by sky_blue_hightops



Series: Sun and Moon AU [24]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Brother Feels, Gen, Hurt Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider, Hurt Varian (Disney), Hurt/Comfort, Song: Decay Incantation | Hurt Incantation (Disney), Team Awesome (Disney: Tangled), Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25993105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_blue_hightops/pseuds/sky_blue_hightops
Summary: It’s the longest half-minute of his life. Or...death, he supposes.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Varian
Series: Sun and Moon AU [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823434
Comments: 11
Kudos: 130





	darling, everything's on fire

It’s the longest half-minute of his life. Or...death, he supposes.

Varian stands tall before him, back to Eugene, hair aloft and a startling black. It lashes, fading a color like the rocks that grow around him, drawing the light from the air. Eugene manages a step forwards, then half of another, but it feels like all the energy in his body left with the light. There’s no breath in his lungs. It feels like the ground has dropped out from under him - his legs fold, he scrapes his palms on the ground and doesn’t feel the pain because he can’t feel _anything_ but _nothing_. When he closes his eyes, it’s near impossible to drag them open again. When he shudders, it’s because he can’t shake the feeling of _wrong_. Of _death_.

There’s no blush to the skin of his hands, pale as if his very blood has drained, fingers reaching out before him desperately. “Hn.” He blinks heavily, head drooping. Is he on his knees? He staggers back to his feet, refusing to sink down once more. He has to reach Varian - has to stop him, somehow. Has to push away the lulling call his brother weaves. “Va...V-” But the name sticks in his dry throat, and his lips refuse to move. Even if he could shape the sounds, his lungs are empty, frozen. He can’t _breathe_. Inky shadows crawl the ground, starting from Varian’s feet. They eat up the brown and the green, slithering at will, drawing up life and siphoning it away. The black swirls around Eugene’s ankles, anchoring his steps and keeping him from lunging forwards. It pulls harshly; he trips and crashes to the ground, weakly shoving upwards with his hands.

“Varian,” his voice twists. It _hurts_. It rasps at his insides and fights against the magic dragging him down, heavy and dark; when Varian turns, there is nothing in his eyes. Twin voids stare back. _It’s too late_.

And then he blinks, the black fading to white and blue, the empty fading to wild terror, pricked with tears - and Eugene thinks _there he is_ and then Varian _falls_.

Eugene barely catches him. The sudden movement makes his head spin, his side burn anew, but his quick lunge forwards is enough to let him gather his brother up and keep him from hitting the ground. “Varian. Varian!” Eugene jostles his shoulders, desperate, and blue eyes crack open.

They’re hazy, for a second, glossy and confused, before the most heart wrenching look flickers through them. “I thought…” And he sniffs, fumbles to grasp the end of Eugene’s sleeve, and Eugene has never been able to watch his brother cry, not without tears of his own. “I thought you-”

“No,” Eugene whispers with a smile, voice rough in the still air between them, in the little bubble they form under the full stretch of the night sky. Warmth spreads upwards from his old wound, from the healing; it is a welcome relief from the numb cold of _almost dying again_. “You can’t get rid of me that easy, kiddo.”

Varian’s lip wobbles before he scrambles to sit up and squeeze under Eugene’s chin, chest heaving. The relief at having his brother back is overwhelming, and almost enough to make him forget about everything else (the shadows still writhing in the dirt, the dull ache of his side, the unshakeable feeling of _empty_ ) but the steady beat of Varian’s heart, but then a shadow crosses over them. Boots thud in the dirt a few feet away.

Eugene covers the back of Varian’s head with a hand, the other reaching for his knife, face drawn in a snarl. The man standing before them chuckles, eyes cruel in the darkness. “How sweet,” he says, voice lilting and raspy, and Eugene sees _blood_. “Now isn’t _that_ a fun little trick.”

Patchy steps up behind him, dagger already out. “Y’know, after this episode and the display the last time we saw you two, we’re beginnin’ to think it might be worth our while to hold on to him a bit longer. You know how it is, Rider. Always gotta keep an eye out for a profit!” His laugh grates, fractured, and Eugene has _had_ it with having to protect. He’s had it with these two, with worrying about a broken brother, worrying about breaking himself. He’s had it with hurting. Can he have a peaceful night again _please_. But they continue to step forwards, intent obvious, and he’s decided he’s had enough.

“Don’t _**touch**_ him.” His words are steel, sharp and quick, and he grips his knife’s handle hard enough that it creaks. Blood rushes in his ears, grey. Red. An anger uncontrolled, a lightning bolt striking twice. He’s still too weak to stand, struggling to breathe over the increasing fire licking at his side and the leftover pulls of the song, to do much else besides curl over Varian - but he won’t go down without a fight.

(The last time he thought that, everything had fallen apart. He’d lost his brother, a whole lot of blood, and a good chunk of emotional stability, but hey, he found Rapunzel and Cass. He’d had Ruddiger. He’d fought his way back to Varian with everything he had.)

(Varian had fought his way back, too, except his everything was black eyes and black rocks and a broken heart, and he’d torn the world apart in his path. He’d dug his hands into the heartbeat of the sky, refused to back down, and lost himself to the moonlight he was born from.)

(There are moments in which Eugene looks at his little brother and sees something far older than he could ever imagine himself to be, something that could crush him without a second glance and encase the universe in an eternity of ice. There are moments in which Eugene looks at his little brother and sees soft cheeks and wide eyes and a loud giggle, an unashamed wonder for everything he can get his hands on. These moments belong side by side. These moments spark awe, fondness, love. These moments, as long as he can still take air into his lungs, are what he lives for.)

He growls and holds Varian tighter. Despite hands pulling him up and shoving him to his feet, wrestling with his grip, they can’t get him to let go. Varian’s only beginning to rouse, reaching out weakly in return, icy fingers searching. There’s a knife in the small of his back, another tilting Varian’s chin, and still he can’t pry his hands from Varian’s arms, not even if he wanted to.

Eugene kicks out wildly, the toe of his boot aimed anywhere soft, but his vision crowds with spots (there’s warmth across the hem of his shirt again, there’s red staining the waist of his pants again and he doesn’t have _time_ to think about that) and he can’t target anything properly. “No, don’t-” But the brothers force them towards the forest, towards the pitch black between the trees, and those knives flash even more dangerously. Whatever the Stabbingtons have planned can’t be good, not given their vague threats at _keeping_ Varian; acid rises in his throat, and he’s only distracted from it when Varian falls to his knees roughly. He drags Eugene and his captor down, but is merely hauled up by the collar of his shirt. “Varian!” But the boy’s head only lolls against his shoulder, eyes shut.

They’re tied to the tree quickly, neither of them strong enough to have a chance at resisting. Eugene strains against the ropes, against the harsh bark of the tree, but they don’t give, and neither does he. “E’gene?” A small voice pipes up from over his shoulder. Black hair tickles his neck, and he twists his head as hard as he can, to get a glimpse, to be as _close_ as possible, but Varian’s mostly out of reach and sight.

“Shh,” he soothes, pitching his voice lower - it’s not hard, when he is almost too exhausted to mumble the words. “It’s okay. We’ll-” The act of talking pulls painfully at his side, and he freezes. What will they do? He’s not stupid - he knows his injury is back, he knows neither of them will be in a state to break free _any_ time soon. He imagines for a second - not stopping Varian. Letting him finish his song, letting his black eat the wildlife, gnaw away at their souls and dig claws in their lungs. He imagines the peace in that ending; them being together for it.

But Varian is very quiet over his shoulder and yet there with him nonetheless, and he finds all the strength he will need in that. They will find a way out; they always have. “We’ll be okay. We will.” It’s not convincing. He holds his breath, tense - Eugene still isn’t sure where his brother’s mind is; how to help him walk the line between calm and fighting.

A long moment of quiet. “...’kay,” Varian replies. The silence stretches on after that, holding all the weaknesses and vulnerabilities that’ve gotten them to this point. All the things they haven’t said, all the feelings they haven’t expressed. Eugene can’t do much about it all now, not without far too many words, but he can think of _one_ thing.

He wiggles his arm around the trunk until it’s behind him, and Varian’s hand shakes and is so small in his palm. He squeezes their fingers together, gripping as much as he can reach, and it’s only half a moment before Varian clings in return. The touch is his lifeline, even as his vision fades slowly and the woozy feeling grows. It is everything he has left.

“Don’t let go, Varian,” he says. “Don’t you ever let go.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey hey hey!! here it is ,,, finally,,,, the boys are back together,,, FINALLY
> 
> thanks for sticking with us we got here!!! and we have more places to go naturally :3c


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